Good Morning Indeed

It’s that time of the year, drink recipe time.  We just celebrated father’s day and that means Jim gets breakfast in bed with either champagne or Bloody Marys.  Jim went for the Bloody Mary this year.  Jim drinks his fair share of Bloody Marys.  He likes them when we are traveling for pleasure on AM flights, and often times will have one.  Jim drinks enough Bloody Marys in airports that really should write his own blog about airport Bloody Marys.  

I usually do not join him for a couple reasons.  First, booze + a plane ride = groggy and bloated.  Second, much like the maligned Caesar salad, there are a lot of bad, bad, bad Bloody Marys.  I have no idea why.  But a good one is like a revelation.  One day we were in San Francisco on our way home from wine country Jim requested a Bloody Mary.  We sat down at the bar of our favorite SFO restaurant next to the Delta gates and Jim ordered his AM departure cocktail.  When it arrived I had drink envy, which, quite frankly, happens a lot.  It wasn’t so much the drink as the garnish they put in it.  No wilty celery; it came piled up with pickled carrots, okra and green beans, a pack of olives and a cucumber spear or two.  I eyed his drink.  

“Are you gonna eat that salad?”  

“Yes.” 

“All of it?”

“Yes. Why don’t you get your own?”

“I don’t want my own I just want your drink salad.”

“Excuse me.” Jim said to the bartender.  “May we have another Bloody Mary?  Actually, make that two more.”  And so I got my drink salad with a side of  cocktail.  And it was an excellent Bloody Mary.  

Soon after I started working on my own Bloody Mary recipe.  There is no excuse for a crappy one.  I suspect the crappy ones involve really bad vodka and off brand tomato juice. For me a Bloody Mary tastes like tomatoes, slightly spicy and you can taste the vodka.  It has a personality, not banality.  

So this year for father’s day we had Bloody Marys and I even joined Jim and drank one, or two, too.

Bloody Marys - Makes 4

2 cups Spicy V8

2 teaspoons worcestershire 

1 1/2 teaspoons prepared horseradish

1 teaspoon Old Bay

1 teaspoon sriracha

juice of 1/2 a lemon

juice of 1/2 a lime

pepper - a turn or two

1 1/4 cups vodka

Garnish

Pickled vegetables and cucumber - the more the merrier

Whisk together the first 8 ingredients and chill overnight.  Add in the vodka and pour over ice.  Garnish and serve.

Notes:  Yes, that is a Trader Vic man in the glass, he’s on top of an olive, pickled okra and a cucumber.  I like using the thick ice cubes that are all the rage currently, so my drink does not get too watery.